Cory WThey’re roasting my ass on transit bus bluesky and so I’m gonna have a crash out where obviously the only solution is diesel forever. /j but also this is a little annoying because this one of those “you aren’t wrong but technology changed and this should probably be a gradual thing” situations
UnFORCHunately this is a nuanced and multifaceted problem and so “BEB need electrical upgrade haha” is an easy potshot it’s not necessarily a negative (or even true), just something about the drivetrain to be aware of.
AndThisIsMrsPeacock 🏳🌈@coryw In Boston the T just ripped out the last vestiges of the 1970s era trolleybus wiring and replaced it with a vague promise of battery-electric buses, maybe, someday. I hate this timeline.
@andthisismrspeacock that’s the inciting event actually. Everything I learn about the MBTA ETB network leads me to believe ETBs were literally never the right tool for the job, they just happened to come along for free with the nearby electric rail transit.
Of course they’ve *also* managed to completely fuck up the transition and it would’ve been better to buy a few new XT series or ask NFI for rebuilds on a few units as part of continuing operation while spinning up a BEB program
@coryw Maybe, that would certainly be better than what's happening. But also for my entire life the T has looked at wires as an expense to be eliminated as quickly as possible instead of a useful power system. This was behind the loss of the A, F, and G trolleys as well as the end of electric buses and the pigheaded refusal to electrify any of the suburban lines.
And now they're gonna do one generation of BEB and declare they wear out too fast and ditch it 🙄
@coryw And you know what, it might make sense if you look at it like "we can get feddybucks for battery buses and battery locomotives but not to maintain real electrification" but that is not a long term strategy that makes any sense.
@andthisismrspeacock the wear point was what I got in trouble for on bsky. I don’t think that, once teething troubles with the format are sorted by a good integrator, battery wear will be a big deal. I would go as far as to say we could see batteries live to be cascaded into new bodies.
But “replace (viable)wires with batteries” isn’t a good strategy and MBTAs problem is ETBs make most sense on “so frequent you wonder if this shouldn’t be a train” routes especially if they’re shared paths
@andthisismrspeacock (such as Market Street in SF)
@andthisismrspeacock with the sole exception of MBTA which should probably not have been ETBs to begin with I would say BEBs are a decent replacement for diesel if operators can figure out how to make the new powertrain work
@coryw Meanwhile, out in the hinterlands, the #WRTA is looking especially handsome tonight. #Worcester #Transit #ILoveNewEngland
